circumstances, he could be jfk. normally you would not get reelected with those numbers. >> paul: the answer is mediocre job growth and stagnant income, the labor force. it's a slow growth, it's a very tough record to defend. basically that's the status. and that's-- >> and he has to defend it and to-- >> does he really? >> oh, i think so. because if you've been president for four years, if he is trying to offload it on to his predecessor, which is a stretch, i think-- >>, but that's different than defending it, that's saying it's still lousy, but it's his fault. but he's trying to give and now the burden falls on the opponent, mitt romney, to give an explanation why he could do better than this president under these circumstances. >> okay, kim, mitt romney now after suffering some blows in advertising, against him in june and july, now is going back on offense, rolls out his economic plan, at least a new way of framing it this week.

what did you make the of pitch? >> and he's out there talking very much about the need to-- i mean, a lot of it is what he's said before. he's got to cut. he's going to cut taxes and strip down the regulation and he's going to put the country looking forward ahead and also, deal with debt and entitlement and some of these. >> paul: and you see, kim, is there a new way he's putting it? remember, he had 59 ideas, which ed rendell, the democrat called 56 too many. is he kind of, is he disstilling that message down to a real two or three that the voters can latch on to? >> yes, he is. and that was what he absolutely needed to do and he needed to also make this positive pitch for himself. he's been mostly on defense, the entire time he's been running, either on defense on the obama campaign going after him or just beating on the president himself and the president's failure and now he's out there. he's distilling the message and something that the voters

can get their head around and a positive message for himself. >> all right. brother freeman, what is the message? disstill it for me. >> and that's around his throat and-- >> how, how. >> and taking government and stripping it back on the private economy. now, you didn't build that for president obama, obviously, and-- >> a very negative message to small business, but what mr. romney is doing is the opposite and kim mentioned a lot of regulation, to a lot of small business people, this is actually a bigger problem than taxes and what romney is saying, we're actually going to measure the costs of new regulations before we impose them on you. he's talking about not just fixing obama care, but a lot of the financial services regulations that didn't end too big to fail banks, but restricted the ability of banks to lend. >> you've made the case throughout this campaign, that barack obama for all of us economic troubles, was actually stitched together something of a compelling alternative reality of the economy. focusing on the middle class

and the economy that -- that built to last. is the romney message right now enough to counter that obama narrative? even if you think that narrative is false, is it enough to persuade those independent voters? >> paul, i think they are beginning to find their way into that debate. obama is counting on the fact that the american people are tremendously anxious about the economic situation. the romney document goes into some depth about not just unemployment, but the jobs crisis. there's this deep structural jobs crisis, the worst we've had since the desuppression. >> right. >> and they're beginning to address that and connect the policies like deregulation, to the reasons for why there's no job growth in the economy. and i think that that's going to probably resonate with a lot of voters. >> and just to underline how it's resonating. beneath the headlines of the jobs, terrible news, u-6

people unemployed and people who have given up because they're discouraged and the neighbor force participation going down. and the reality is terrible and i think you have to say that the president's policies have failed on their own term. kim-- >> go ahead, kim. >> it underlines within of the obama p campaign's key members, we had a recession and slowly, but surely climbing out of it. the problem with the unemployment numbers and the dip in gdp, three years of a dip. it doesn't look that way. it looks as though we're not really making progress and then that begins to make voters ask the question if that is in fact because of obama policy? >> well, and that big coming tax increase, the president may have backed himself into worse numbers as everybody, businesses wait to see whether or not they should hire them based on the outcome of the election. when we come back, president

obama's latest efforts to paint mitt romney as just another george w. bush. is that a fair comparison? our panel takes on that challenge next. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance.

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>> president obama's campaign releasing a new ad that tries to link mitt romney to former president george w. bush. take a look. >> you watched and worried, two wars, tax cuts for millionaires, debt piled up and now, we face a choice: mitt romney's plan, a new $250,000 tax cut for millionaires and increased military spending and or president obama's plan, deficit reduction, millionaires pay a little more. i'm president obama and i approved this message because to cut the deficit we need everyone to pay their fair share. >> paul: okay, so is the obama camp saying a vote for mitt romney means two more wars?

kim, explain to us what the obama camp is saying with this strategy of linking mitt romney to george w. bush. >> well, this is part of the alternate reality of the obama world. what we have to do is blame everything that's wrong in the country right now on george w. bush, blame it on the wars, blame it on the president bush's tax cuts and everything else. of course, it's not actually why we're in the situation we are. it's in part because we had a big housing crisis and also, compounded, dramatically by president obama's severe spending streak that he's been on since then. so, but this is what he's trying to sell and it's integral to his campaign. >> but if you look at the polling, kim, they show that a lot of voters still think that the troubles we're in were the fault of bush. >> yeah, here is the problem with those polls, so, yes, a lot of voters say they were the responsibility of bush, but the thing is, president bush isn't on the ballot list

here, the problems with the polls they show more than half of america also thinks that president obama is a lot or moderately to blame for the economic crisis and that's the problem he has. >> okay, james, how different, how different do you think that mitt romney would be on economic policy than george bush? they share some of the president's first term advisors, hubbard, and greg mankiw from harvard. where do you think he'd be different. >> i think different on the grounds of spending and entitlements. president george w. bush did make one ill-fated effort to reform social security, but that didn't work and we can go on all day how that was screwed up. but i think what you see with mr. romney, largely embracing the ryan plan in the house is a more serious effort to rein in entitlement spending. >> paul: that's where he would be different. what mistakes should he avoid that george w. bush made. look, the bush administration

didn't end on a really happy note economically. >> right, right. remember the phrase no new taxes, i think that romney should be no new spending. remember the prescription drug benefit that george bush passed. >> paul: a huge expansion. >> a huge expansion, that contributed a lot to the growth of the tea party which was the insurrection inside the republican party. in 2010 they swept democrats out of office and we have the insuggestives, and one piece of data in the romney economic documents that caught my eye, he will push spending back to 20% of gdp, the average since 1968. during obama's term it's risen to about 24% of gdp. if he sticks to that, that means to spending will not rise during the romney presidency. >> paul: i would have to say romney has to avoid the bush

mistakes of subsidizing housing and created a housing bubble which led to the crisis. >> to his credit, even in places like nevada when it's been politically not, not the easiest thing to do. he's resisted, saying, yeah, let's go for another housing bailout. >> kim, as a political strategy, do you think that romney ought to attempt, retorically somehow to separate himself from president bush and say that obama's policies are the biggest problems we have right now economically. i think that republicans made some mistakes, too, back in the last decade and i'm not going it repeat them? >> yeah, no, you're absolutely right. there's a split in the republican party right now between the old unreformed wing of the party that we're the big spenders, the ear markers, the guys who lost their way and these new insurgents that dan was talking about. if romney wants to deal with this very efficiently.

he says i am not barack obama nor am i the version of the old republican party. i'm there with the reform crew and would help to innoculate him with a lot of the bush curses. >> and one thing out of the extension of the wind power tax subsidy. >> very encouraging, very encouraging. he's got a great opportunity to counter punch. unlike barack obama in 2005 on he was voting for spending and voting against it and wanted to spend more than president bush. so, the bush years have a problem for barack obama if mitt romney wants to explore. >> briefly, dan, separate himself from bush? >> a little bit. i wouldn't go overboard with that. he think the republican base is ready to vote against the democrats and more a republican. >>, but those independents are the swing voters, they're the guys you've got to be able to persuade. all right, when we come back, how far have the chinese really gone to win at this summer's olympic games? i was teaching a martial arts class and having a heart attack.

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>> i think we need to get real here. these are athletes at high levels and records broken all over the place and we have a very, very strong drug testing program and we're very confident if there are cheats we will catch them. >> paul: the olympics brings the best athletes together for competition. and the inevitable controversy. this summer's games in london are no different. charges of doping and even genetic engineering came down faster than the swim time of 16-year-old ye win. she stunned the world and swam her final 50 meters in the 400 im faster than ryan lochte who won the gold for the men.

and chinese claim that they're just biased against china. and the showcase for individual achievement or nationalism. >> it's not quite the drama of the cold war when you had us against the soviet union, kind of good versus evil conflict, but you have some of that, when you compare our political system to china and they've evolved toward our economic system so maybe not the dramatic thing. >> what do you make over the controversy over the chinese swimmer's times? >> there's reason to be suspicious, but in all reports china engaged in doping in the 1990's was embarrassed by that and stopped doing it. credible reports say they know longer do that. some individuals may do it, but it's not a state sanctioned policy. >> right. >> paul: at least our colleague hugo described it very well and talked about the

program which picks these men and women, and boys and girls at six or seven and then just puts them with the world's best trainers and so on. >> and that somehow is supposed to prove that the chinese system is better. i believe that the chinese government does this for internal consumption. i mean, that government is constantly trying to relegitimize itself and prove its worth in front of the chinese people and this is a kind of straight forward and easy way to do it amidst the other mistakes they make when accidents and such happens in china. >> i think this is the difference between now and the cold war. we used to be, for a life and death struggle to convince the world, which was the better model. and now, i think the chinese have a lot more at stake than we do. they an illegitimate regime and seems to achievements. >> go ahead, kim. >> one thing i don't think has changed, the rest of the world does view the olympics as the americans, we want it achieve

and highlight our talents and the latest example why we are good at things. for many countries out here, gets to what james is saying and hasn't necessarily changed from the cold war, countries like china, this is their chance to prove to the world that they're a player and that they matter and it's very important to them that they succeed and there's a different focus on it in these countries than on the united states. >> in china where the only claims the government has, et cetera not to legitimacy, or elections, it's economic growth and these olympics are a showcase for that kind of national achievement and so, that's why they put a lot of this effort in. on the other hand, you know, we haven't gotten back to the position, dan, where the bulgarian judges or the east german judges were giving the americans really low scores just so-- >> i remember those days during the gymnastic competitions looking at the gymnasts, and i keep waiting for the cameras to turn to the judges and the east german

judge nervously fooling around with papers. . >> kim, i don't want to pick on you, but you're probably too young to remember the cold war. what about the american view of this things. we see some people try to play up the chinese achievements and say america is falling behind and yet the thing i notice is that you still have these fantastic examples of individuals who sacrifice so much to achieve so much and when they win and do so well, it's really a celebration of their own sacrifices and achievements. >> it is. and it's been very moving, a lot of those stories and i think i think, too, what defines america in the olympics is that you see the stories across the country, and the people being drawn into the sport for any variety of reasons, succeeding for a variety of reasons, sometimes because they're intrigued by professional sports that are also working in this country. and, but what you don't see

and that's the individualism, you don't see the state coming in and picking you out when you're four years old and shipping you off to the olympics program and there is a certain americans and individualism to it all that americans celebrate. >> and possibly comes down to individual achievement rather than state achievement. there's no other way to define the olympics other than the successes of individuals. >> paul: and the people do help finance these things, the athletes and they need money to be able to train did you ultimately it's their commitment, individual commitment. we have to take within more break, when we come back, hits and misses of the week. [ female announcer ] to get a professional cleansing system you could spend as much as $200. olay says challenge that with an instrument that cleanses as effectively as what's sold by skin professionals

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>> time now for hits and misses. >> here is a miss to the obama white house and the news and the officials have been routinely hiding their political meetings by conducting their business off the white house grounds so they don't have to put it in the white house visitor's log

or doing business on personal e-mail. now, every white house probably engages in this to a certain degree and everyone knows it's a no-no. i think what's striking here is the gulf between this behavior from the obama white house and its promising coming in they were going to be the most transparent administration in the history of the country. so much for that. >> paul: sounds like you should hang out at caribou coffee and source up, kim. >> exactly. >> an olympic hit to the fact that at least three of the athletes on the u.s. team are foreign born, one is the son from cuba and another is a son from awn documented mexican worker, two were refugees from africaen. immigration poles say they're the exception. even our immigration system put ceilings on good people that want to come to the united states. i think the olympic exceptions prove we need new rules to let the best people come to the united states and compete wherever they want to compete. >> paul: james?

>> a hit to all the customers who showed up at chick-fil-a this week, stand up for free speech and the politicians tried to shut out the business, because its president dared to express support for traditional maerj, so, good for the customers for standing up for free speech and the freedom to serve a delicious sandwich, yeah, not chicago mayor rahm emanuel's finest hour, threatening to use government power to block chick-fil-a from coming to chicago, really something. remember, if you have your own hit or miss, please send it to us. ger@foxnews.com, and follow it on twitter@ger on fnc. thank you for watching, and we hope to see you here next week. . >> jon: on fox news watch. >> the word's out that he hasn't paid for taxes for ten years. >> jon: the majority leader of

the united states senate harry reid makes news with he claims about mitt romney. the word coming from an unnamed source. did the media question his words or did they run with the story? >> governor romney, do you feel that your gaffe overshadowed your foreign trip? >> it makes news, but did the press pass on a positive and make headlines of minor missteps? >> i think we're inviting god's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, we know better than you, as to what constitutes a marriage? >> chick-fil-a's chief reinforces his opinion of traditional marriage and causi causing lunkheads and activists to step u. did they chicken out. and strikes again producing a fake article in the new york times number one journalist, bill keller, how did they get away with that? and mayor bloomberg is at it

again, now he wants to lock up the baby formula. should the press turn him off? and a bogus story about the heat, burned some in the press. >> oh, boy, do we have a show this week! on panel, writer and fox news contributor, judy miller. radio talk show host and author of the new book "what the bleep just happened" monica crowley and deputy washington bureau chief and news director and daily beast commentator kirsten powers. i'm jon scott, fox news watch is on right now. ♪ >> do you think you're getting a fair shake from the press? >> i think i'm getting exactly the shake i expected. [laughter] >> all right? which is-- >> as a conservative, i'm interpreting what you're saying as a conservative you don't think you're getting a fair shake from the press. >> what i think is, in a nation that has a free press we recognized rights of